RAFAEL. URIEL.
Rafael:
The whole of Heaven, from base to topmost crown
Of her chief palaces, resounds with joy,
As Michael's trumpets blow and banners wave.
The field is won. Our shields shine splendidly,
Shaping new suns. From every shield-sun streams
A day triumphant forth. Lo! from the fight,
See, Uriel proud, the armor-bearer, comes;
And waves the flaming, keen, two-edged sword,
That, whet with Heaven's wrath and vengeance, flashed,
Amid the fray, through shield and mail and helm 10
Of diamond, left and right, through all that dared
Oppose the all-piercing Power, Omnipotence.
O armor-bearer, most austere, who art
The executioner on high, and dost
With one strong, righteous stroke compose the Wrong
That would rebel against eternal Right,
Blest be thy sword and arm, that thus maintain
And guard the honor of our Angel Realm.
What praise reserved for thee by Majesty
Supreme! Oh! pray relate to us the strife: 20
Unfold to us the management of this,
The first campaign in Heaven. We listen, then,
In expectation rapt.
Uriel:
Your wish inflames
My spirit to begin, this fearful fray
In calmness to describe, with sequence just,
Success the army crowns that fights with God.
The Field-marshal, great Michael (being warned
By the envoy of Heaven, who from above
Flew downward, downward swifter than a star
That shoots athwart the sky, with the tidings how, 30
Against the high decree proud Lucifer
Himself so openly opposed, prepared
To lead his incense-swinging worshippers--
All who his standard and his morning-star
Had sworn their bold allegiance), quickly donned,
At Gabriel's report--that Herald true--
His scaly coat of mail, and with firm voice
He forthwith then gave charge to all his chiefs,
His captains, lords, and officers to place,
In the name of God, the troops in battle rank, 40
That, with united forces and with all
Their strength, they might sweep from the airy vast
Of purest crystalline this perjured scum:
To cast in darkness all those Spirits vile,
Ere unawares they us surprise. Upon
This charge the legions rapidly deployed
Themselves in battle-line, as speedily
As flies the nimble arrow from the bow.
We saw there countless throngs together swarm
In bright array and glowing martial pomp, 50
Until they formed, in serried rank, one firm
Trilateral host that, like a triangle,
Thrust out its edges sharp upon the eye.
We saw a solid mass, like one dense light,
Three-pointed, polished mirror-smooth, even like
To diamond, and a battle-front advance
By God more than by Spirit understood.
The Field-marshal towered in the army's heart,
Full-faced before God's banner, with the glow
Of lurid lightnings in his lifted hand. 60
Who courage would preserve.--would victory
And triumph e'er attain.--should first have care
To make sure of and then to gain the heart.
Rafael:
But where the host accursed that us would storm?
Uriel:
It came into the field of daring full
With all its primal faith, obedience,
Honor, and oath, and what besides, forgot
In this base and presumptuous attempt
'Gainst God, despite our prayers. It swiftly waxed.
And pointed like a crescent moon its ends. 70
It sharpened both its points, and these, even like
Two horns, closed in upon us, as amid
The Zodiac the Bull doth threaten with
His golden horns the other animals
Celestial and the monsters that revolve
Around. Upon the right horn there advanced
Prince Belzebub, whose purpose was to clip
Our spreading wings, and also to keep guard.
The left horn to Prince Belial was assigned.
Thus both stood there in shining panoply, 80
Vying in splendors grand. The Stadtholder,
Now Field-marshal 'gainst God, the centre held
Of this array, that he might guard the key,--
The point strategic of the legions there.
The lofty standard, from whose morning-star
The day did seem to stream, Apollion
Behind him bore, as bravely as he could,
In his full glory seated high to view.
Rafael:
Alas! what dares--what dares the great Archangel
Attempt? Oh! if I only could in time 90
Have brought him to desist. However, now
Describe to me the aspect of their march,
And with what show the Prince his legions led.
Uriel:
Surrounded by his staff and retinue
In green, he, wickedly impelled by hate
Irreconcilable, in golden mail,
That brightly shone upon his martial vest
Of glowing purple, mounted then his car,
Whose golden wheels with rubies were emblazed.
The lion and the dragon fell, prepared 100
For speedy flight, with backs sown full of stars
And to the chariot joined by pearly traces,
Panted for strife, and for destruction flamed.
Within his hand a battle-axe he bore,
And from his left arm hung a glimmering shield,
Wherein his morning-star was artfully
Embossed: thus stood he poised to venture all.
Rafael:
O Lucifer, thou shalt this pride repent.
Thou phoenix 'mongst God's worshippers on high.
How grand thou dost appear amid thy legions, 110
With helm, head, neck, and shoulders eminent!
How gloriously thine armor thee becomes,
As if by nature fitted to thy form!
Oh! Chief of Spirits, no farther go; turn back.
Uriel:
Confronted thus they stood embattled, troop
By troop, each in his air and station placed,
All ranked by files 'neath their respective chiefs,
Both sides arrayed with fairest pomp to view.
When furious drum and clarion trumpet sound,
Their medley resonance nerves every arm 120
And sharpens every sword; and mounts on high
Into the firmament of the holy Light
Supreme, a din whereat a pregnant cloud
Of darts doth burst with pealing thunder-showers
Of fiery hail, a storm and tempest fierce,
That makes afraid the very Heaven and shakes
The pillars of its palaces. The stars
And spheres, perplexed, from their appointed paths
And orbits err, or on their circled watch
Bewildered stand, not knowing where to turn: 130
Or East or West, or upwards or below.
All that is seen is lightning flash and flame;
All that is heard is thunder. What remains
In its primeval place? That which was once
The highest now becomes the thing most low.
The squadrons, when the deep-vibrating shock
Of their artillery's first volleyed roar
Has died away, now struggle hand to hand
With halberd, sabre, dagger, club, and spear.
All stab and slash, that can. All formed by nature 140
For fell destruction and for greedy spoil
Now haste to strike the violating blow.
All thoughts of kin and brotherhood have ceased;
Nor knoweth any one his fellow more.
Above are whirling, like a cloud of dust,
Proud crests of pearl with curlèd locks of hair,
And plumes and wings refulgent with a gleam
Drawn from the singeing lightning's glow. Behold!
In rich confusion mingled, blue turquoise,
With gold and diamond, necklaces of pearl, 150
And all that can adorn the hair or head.
Wings lopped in twain, and broken arrows, whirl
Athwart the sky. A horrid battle-cry
Rises from out the cohorts clad in green:
Their regiments, in danger, are compelled
By our hot onset to retreat. Three times
The maddened Lucifer the fight renews,
And proudly stays his faltering followers,
Even as a rock beats back the ocean surge
That, wave on wave, with foaming rage assails 160
In vain attempt.
Rafael:
Indeed, 'tis something this:
To fight, armed by despair.
Uriel:
Then straightway caused
The valiant Michael all the trumps to sound:
"Glory to God!" His legions, thus made bold
By this their watchword, and by his command,
Begin by circling wheels to soar aloft,
To gain the wind-side of their battling foe,
Who also rises, but with heavier sail,
And finally to leeward slowly drifts:
As if one heavenward a falcon saw, 170
Mounting with pinions bold into the sky.
Ere that the drowsing herons are aware.
Who in a wood, hard by a pleasant mead,
Tremble with fright, when from their lofty nest
They see their dreaded foe. The heron cries,
And, fearful of the falcon's direful claw,
Awaits him on his beak, thus to impale
His enemy's soft breast from there beneath,
When swoops the falcon with unerring wings
Upon his prey.
Rafael:
O Lucifer, for thee 180
What remedy? It seems most terrible!
Now art thou in the open field, where port
Nor wall defend. A horrid whirlwind soon
Shall suddenly swoop down and bury thee
Deep in some gulf and bottomless abyss.
Uriel:
What fair perspective it was, thus to view
A hemisphere or crescent moon beneath,
And up above a point trilateral:
To see the legions, that upon the word
Of their commanding chiefs close in their ranks, 190
Or them deploy, in their battalions stand
As firm as walls of iron, as if they,
With all their ordnance, dumb artillery,
And martial engines, there in equipoise
Were placed, full-weighted 'gainst the balanced air!
They hang suspended like a silent cloud,
A cloud whereon the sun doth pour his beams,
And which he paints with shade and varied hue
And airy rainbows. So then, steeply flown
Aloft, the bold celestial eagle sees 200
God's foe, the hawk, circling his flight beneath.
He strikes his wings together valiantly;
But brooks awhile the hawk's wild wheeling there,
And vain defiance, while he flames ere long
To swoop upon his feathered back and pluck
His glossy plumes: when, in the aery vast,
"With curvèd beak and talons he shall seize
His prey, or drive it, with the wind behind,
Far from his eyes. Thus they precipitate
Themselves, and stream down from their place on high. 210
Even like some inland lake, or waterfall.
In some far, Northern wild, that from the cliffs
Dashes with thundering resonance that frights
The beasts and monsters in deep-hidden dells;
Where from the precipice, rocks, loosened, fall,
With massive torrents and uprooted trees
In countless numbers, that in their fierce plunge
Crush and destroy all that the violence
Of stream and stone and wood cannot withstand.
The point of the advancing column strikes 220
The crescent's centre with assault most fell
Of brimstone, red and blue, and flames, with stroke
On stroke and quick-succeeding thunderbolts
A piercing cry ascends. Their army's heart,
Endangered, now begins, by slow degrees,
To fail support of the accursèd one.
The half-moon's bow, beneath the strain, begins
To crack and break (for the ends together curve);
So that they who the centre hold, must yield
Before that onset fierce, and flee, if soon 230
Deliverance be not brought from their distress.
Prince Lucifer, swift-driven here and there,
Approaches at this cry, and fearlessly
Himself exposes on his car, to show
His valor in this crisis dire. This gives
New heart unto the faltering ones. Then, from
The foaming bit of his now furious team.
He wards the feilest blows and fiercest strokes.
The lion and the dragon blue, enraged,
Leap forward at his word with fearful strides: 240
One bellows, bites, and rends, while poison shoots
Out from the other's forkèd tongue, who thus
A pest provokes, and, raving, fills the air
With smoke blown from his nostrils far and wide.
Rafael:
Now will the burning strike him from on high?
Uriel:
He waves his battle-axe aloft to fell
God's banner, that, descending, darts the beams
And fairer radiance of God's name into
His glowing face. Oh! think what envy then
Him filled, to see this portent on our side. 250
With battle-axe in hand, now here, now there,
He parries every stroke, or breaks their force
Upon his shield, till Michael comes before
Him, clad in glittering armor, like a God
Amid a ring of suns: "Cease, Lucifer;
Give God the victory. Lay down your arms
And standard; yield to God. Come, lead away
This wicked crew, this impious horde. Or else,
Beware thy head!" Thus shouts he from on high.
The Grand Foe of God's name, stiff-necked, unmoved, 260
And more defiant at these words, renews
The fight with haste precipitate, and thrice
With war-axe strives to cleave the diamond shield
Where glowed God's holy name. But who provokes
The Deity shall feel His wrath. The axe
The holy diamond strikes, but lo! rebounds,
And shivers into fragments. Then aloft
His right hand Michael lifts, and through the helm
And head of that rebellious one he smites,
Helped by the great Omnipotent, his lightnings, 270
Cleaving unto his eyes with violence
So great that he falls backward, and is hurled
Down from his chariot, that forthwith follows
Him, whirling round and round in its descent;
Thus lion, dragon, driver, all plunge down.
The standard of the Star doth cease to shine,
When feels Apollion my flaming sword.
Whereon his banner, straightway, he doth leave
As plunder in my hands; while in fierce swarms
Tumultuous their warring myriads 280
Attempt, in vain, to stay the falling Chief
Of all the hosts infernal, and to save
Him from this fate and great calamity.
Here fights Prince Belzebub, and there opposed
Stands Belial. Thus their squadrons are confused:
And with the Stadtholder's important fall
The crescent's bow soon into shivers breaks.
Then comes Apollion into the field,
With all the monsters from the firmament.
The giant Orion shrieks, until the sound 290
The very air makes faint; then with his club
He strives to crush the head of our assault,
That, heedless of Orion or his club,
Moves grandly on. The Northern Bears rear back
Upon their haunches, that their brutish strength
May blindly us oppose. The Hydra gapes
With fifty throats, that vomit poison forth.
I view a gallery of battle-scenes,
All happening in the fray, as far as eye
Can see.
[Illustration: "Thus lion, dragon, driver, all plunge down."]
Rafael:
Praise be to God! Upon your knees 300
Fall down and worship Him! O Lucifer,
Ah! where now is that fickle confidence?
In what strange shape shall I, alas! behold
Thee soon? Where now are thy proud splendors, that
All other pomp so easily outshone?
Uriel:
Even as bright day to gloomy night is changed,
Whene'er the sun forgets his golden glow,
So in his downward fall his beauty turned
To something monstrous and most horrible:
Into a brutish snout his face, that shone 310
So glorious; his teeth into large fangs,
Sharpened for gnawing steel; his hands and feet
Into four various claws; into a hide
Of black that shining skin of pearl; while from
His bristled back two dragon wings did sprout.
Alas! the proud Archangel, whom but now
All Angels honored here, hath changed his shape
into a hideous medley of seven beasts,
As outwardly appears: A lion proud;
A greedy, gluttonous swine; a slothful ass; 320
A fierce rhinoceros, with rage inflamed;
An ape, in every part obscene and vile,
By nature lewd and most lascivious;
A dragon, full of envy; and a wolf
Of sordid avarice. His beauteous form
Is now a monster execrable, by God
And Spirit and man e'er to be cursed. That beast
Doth shrink to view its own deformity,
And veils with darkling mists its Gorgon face.
Rafael:
Thus shall Ambition learn how vain to tilt 330
For God's own crown. Where stayed Apollion?
Uriel:
He saw his tide ebb when his star declined,
And fled: so fled they all. Then, from above,
The celestial ordnance pours forth shot on shot,
With lightning flash and rolling thunders loud,
Causing the monsters that into the light
Have crawled to swell the rout; and pleased are all.
With God's array, to aid in such pursuit!
O! what a whirl of storms in one resolved!
And what a noisy tumult rises round! 340
What floods sweep by! Our legions, blessed by God,
Advance, and strike and crush whatever they meet.
What cries of pain now burst forth everywhere,
As from the fleeing hordes one hears, amid
This wild confusion and this change of form
In limbs and shapes, their roars and bellowings.
Some yell, and others howl. What fearful frowns
Those Angel faces wear, the mirrors dread
Of Hell's infernal horrors. Hark! I hear
Michael return, triumphant, to display, 350
Here in the light, the spoil from Angels reft.
The choristers now greet him with their songs
Of praise, with sound of cymbal, pipe, and drum.
They come in front, and strew their laurel leaves
'Mid those celestial harmonies around.
CHORUS OF ANGELS. MICHAEL.
Chorus:
Hail! to the hero, hail!
Who the wicked did assail;
And in the fight, o'er his might and his standard.
Triumphant did prevail.
Who strove for God's own crown, 360
From his high and splendid throne,
Into night, with his might, hath been driven.
How dazzling God's renown!
Though flames the tumult fell,
The valiant Michael
With his hand the fierce brand can extinguish:
All mutiny shall quell.
God's banner he doth rear:
Come, wreathe his brow austere.
Now, in peace, shall increase Heaven's Palace: 370
No discord now we hear.
Then to the Godhead raise.
In His deathless courts, your praise.
Glory bring to the King of all Kingdoms:
His deeds inspire our lays.
Michael:
Praise be to God! The state of things above
Has changed. Our Grand Foe has met his defeat;
And in our hands he leaves his standard, helm,
And morning-star, and shield and banners bold.
Which spoil, gained in pursuit, even now doth hang, 380
'Mid joys triumphant, honors, songs of praise,
And sounds of trump, on Heaven's axis bright,
The mirror clear of all rebelliousness,
Of all ambition that would rear its crest
'Gainst God, the stem immovable--grand fount,
Prime source, and Father of all things that are,
Which from His hand their nature did receive,
And various attributes. No more shall we
Behold the glow of Majesty Supreme
Dimmed by the damp of base ingratitude. 390
There, deep beneath our sight and these high thrones,
They wander through the air and restlessly
Move to and fro, all blind and overcast
With shrouding clouds, and horribly deformed.
Thus is his fate, who would assail God's Throne.
Chorus:
Thus is his fate, who would assail God's Throne.
Thus is his fate, who would, through envy, man,
In God's own image made, deprive of light.
GABRIEL. MICHAEL. CHORUS.
Gabriel:
Alas! alas! alas! how things have changed!
Why triumph here? Our triumph is in vain: 400
Ah! vain display, these plundered flags and arms!
Michael:
What hear I, Gabriel?
Gabriel:
Oh! Adam's fallen:
The father and the stem of all mankind,
Most pitiful and sad! brought to his fall
So soon. He is undone.
Michael:
That bursts even like
A sudden thunder-peal upon our ears.
Although I shudder, yet I long to hear
This overthrow described. Doth then the Chief
Accursed, also on Earth his warfare wage?
Gabriel:
The battle o'er, he called his scattered host 410
Unto his side, though first his chieftains bold,
Who to each other turned abhorring gaze;
And then, to shun the swift, all-searching rays
Of the all-seeing Eye, he veiled them round
With gloomy mists, that formed a hollow cloud,
A dark, obscure, and gruesome lair of fog,
Where shone no light, where gleamed no glow of fire
Save what did shine from their own blazing eyes.
And in that dim, infernal consistory,
High-seated 'mid his Councillors of State, 420
With bitter rage 'gainst God he thus began:
"Ye Powers, who for our righteous cause have borne,
With such fierce pride, this injury, 'tis time
To be revengèd for our wrongs: with hate
Irreconcilable and furious craft
The Heavens to persecute and circumvent
In their own chosen image, man, and him
To smother at his birth, in his ascent,
Ere that his sinews gain their promised strength
And ere he multiply. 'Tis my design, 430
Both Adam and his seed now to corrupt.
I know how, through transgression of the law
Him first enjoined, to stain him with a blot
Indelible; so that he with his seed,
In soul and body poisoned, never shall
Usurp the throne from which ourselves were thrust:
Though it may be that some shall yet ascend
On high, a number small and slight; and these
Alone through thousand deaths and suffering
And labor shall attain the state and crown 440
To us denied. Lo! miseries forthwith
Shall follow aft in Adam's wake, and spread,
From age to age, throughout the whole wide world.
Even Nature shall, attainted by this blow,
Almost decay, and wish again to turn
To chaos and its primal nothingness.
I see mankind, in God's own image made,
From God's similitude debased, estranged,
And tarnished, even in will and memory
And understanding, while the holy light 450
Within created is obscured and dimmed:
Yea, all yet in their mother's anxious womb,
That wait with sorrow for their natal hour,
I now, forsooth, behold a helpless prey
To Death's relentless jaws. I shall exalt
My tyranny with e'er-increasing pride,
While you, my sons, I then shall see adored
As Deities, on altars and in fanes
Innumerable that tower to Heaven, where burns
The sacrificial victim, 'mid the smoke 460
Of censers and the dazzling sheen of gold,
In praise most reverential. I see hosts
Of men, whose multitudes are even beyond
The power of tongue to name--yea, all that spring
From Adam's loins--for all eternity
Accursed by their deeds abominable,
Done in defiance of God's name. So dear
To Him the cost of triumph o'er my crown."
Michael:
Accursèd one, even yet to be so bold
In thy defiance 'gainst thy God! Ere long 470
Thou shalt from us this blasphemy unlearn.
Gabriel:
Even thus spake Lucifer, and then he sent
Prince Belial down, that he forthwith might cause
Mankind to fall: who took upon himself
The form of that most cunning of all beasts,
The Serpent, type of wickedness itself,
That he might with a gloss of words adorn
His luring snares, which then those creatures pure
In guileless innocence even thus received,
As, swinging from the tempting bough of knowledge, 480
That lone forbidden tree, he hung aloft:
"Hath God, upon the pain of death, with such
Severity and at so high a price,
Deprived you of the freedom of this fruit?
--The taste of even the choicest tree of all?
Nay, Eve, thou simple dove, indeed thou dost
Mistake. But once behold this apple, pray!
Aye! see how glows this radiant fruit with gold
And crimson mingled! An alluring feast!
Yea, daughter, nearer draw; no venom lurks up 490
In this immortal leaf. How tempts this fruit!
Yea, pluck; yea, freely pluck: I promise thee
All light and knowledge. Come, why shouldst thou shrink
For fear of sin? Aye, taste, and thus become
Equal to God Himself in cognizance,
Honor and wisdom, truth and majesty:
Even though He much may wish thee to deny.
Thus must distinctions be discerned in things.
Their nature, entities, and qualities."
Forthwith begins the heart of the fair bride 500
To burn and to enkindle, till she flames
To see the praised fruit, which first allures
The eye: the eye the mouth, that sighs to taste.
Desire doth urge the hand, all quivering,
To pluck. And thus she plucks, and tastes and eats
(Oh! how this shall afflict her progeny!)
With Adam, and as soon as then their eyes
Are opened and they see their nakedness,
They deck themselves with leaves--with leaves of fig,
Their shame, disgrace, and taint original-- 510
And in the trees and shadows hide themselves;
But hide in vain from the all-piercing Eye.
Then gradually the sky grows black. They see
The rainbow, as a warning messenger
And portent of God's plagues, stretched o'er the Heavens,
That weep, in mourning clad. Nor wringing hands,
Nor sad lament, nor cries avail the pair.
Alas! the lightnings gleam, with flash on flash,
And shaking thunders roll there, peal on peal.
And naught is heard but sighs, and naught is seen 520
But fright and gloom. They even their shadows flee;
But ne'er can 'scape that dread heart-cankering worm,
The sting of conscience. Thus, with knees that knock
Together, step by step they stumble on,
Their faces ghastly pale, and eyes, o'er-brimmed
With tears, blind to the light. How spiritless,
They who but now their heads so proudly held!
The sound of rustling leaf or whispering brook,
The faintest noise, doth them confound; the while
A pregnant cloud descends, that bursts and bears, 530
By slow degrees, a light and radiant glow,
Wherein the great Supreme appears in shape
Impressive, thundering with His Voice, that fells
Them to the earth.
[Illustration:
--"Nor wringing hands,
Nor sad lament, nor cries avail the pair."]
Chorus.
Oh! oh! 'twere better far,
Had mankind ne'er been made. This teaches them
By such a juicy fruit to be beguiled.
Gabriel:
"O Adam," thunders God, "where art thou hid?"
"Forgive me. Lord; I flee thy countenance,
Naked and all ashamed." "Who taught thee thus,"
Asks God, "thy shame and nakedness to know? 540
Didst dare profane thy lips with the forbidden
Fruit?" "Aye, my bride, my wife, alas! did tempt."
She says, "The wily Serpent hath deceived
Me with this lure." Thus each the charge denies
Of being the cause of their sad wretchedness.
Chorus:
Mercy! What penalty hangs o'er their crime?
Gabriel:
The woman, who hath Adam thus seduced,
God threatens with the pains of tears and travail,
And her subjection, and the man with care
And labor, sweat and arduous slavery; 550
The soil, where man, at last, shall find his grave,
With noxious weeds and great calamities;
The Serpent, for the sly misuse thus made
Of his most subtle tongue, shall, o'er the ground,
Upon his belly creep, and live alone
On dust and earth. But as a comfort sure,
In such a misery, to poor mankind
God promises, in truth, out of the seed
And blood of the first woman, to raise up
The Strong One, who shall crush the Serpent's head, 560
This Dragon vile, through deadly hate, by time
Nor yet eternity to be removed.
And though this raging monster make attempt
To bite His heel, yet shall the Hero win;
And from the strife shall come with honors crowned.
I come, in the name of Him, the Highest One,
To thee this sad disaster to reveal.
Forthwith all things in wonted order place,
Ere they, for us, shall further mischief brew.
Michael:
Come, Uriel, armor-bearer, who dost guard 570
The Right divine and punishest the Wrong:
Take up thy flaming sword: fly down below,
And drive the twain from Eden, who have dared
Transgress, so rash and blind, the primal law.
Go, guard the gate of the Paradise profaned,
And forcibly the exiles drive away
From this rare food, this tree, prolonging life.
Permit not that they pluck the immortal fruit,
Nor their abuse of heavenly gifts allow.
Thou art placed, as sentinel, the garden over, 580
And o'er this tree. Then see that Adam shall
Be driven out, and that from morn to eve
He plough the field, and till the clayey ground
From which, the breath of God once fashioned him,
Ozias, to whose hand once God Himself
With honor did entrust the ponderous hammer
Of bright-hewn diamond made, also the chains
Of ruby and the clamps so sharp of teeth,
Go hence, and capture and securely bind
The host of the infernal animals, 590
Also the lion and the dragon fell,
That furiously against our standards rage.
Sweep from the sky these hordes accursed, and bind
Them neck and claw, and chain them forcibly.
This key of the black bottomless abyss
And all its dungeons is unto your care,
Azarias, enjoined. Go hence, and lock
All that our power assail within those vaults.
Maceda, take this torch, to you this flame
Is given: go light the deep lake sulphurous. 600
Down in the centre of the Earth, and there
Torment thou Lucifer, who hath brought forth
Such numerous horrors, in the eternal fire
Unquenchable, with chilling frosts commingled:
There Grief and Horror and Obduracy,
And Hunger, Thirst, and comfortless Despair,
The sting of Conscience, Wrath implacable,
The punishments given for this mad attempt,
Amid the smoke from God's deep glow concealed,
Bear witness to the blasting curse of Heaven, 610
Passed on this Spirit impious, the while
Shall come the promised Seed, the Reconciler,
Who shall appease the blazing wrath of God,
And in His wondrous love to man restore
All that by Adam's trespass has been lost.
[Illustration:
--"The eternal fire
Unquenchable, with chilling frosts commingled."]
Chorus:
Deliverer, who thus the Serpent's head
Shalt bruise, and who, at the appointed time,
Shalt fallen mankind cleanse from the foul taint
Original, from Adam's loins derived;
And who again, for frail Eve's offspring, shalt 620
Ope here, on high, a fairer Paradise,
"We shall with longing tell the centuries
Till the year, day, and hour when shall appear
Thy promised Mercy, which its pristine bloom
To pining Nature shall restore, and place
Upon the throne whereout the Angels fell
The souls and bodies Thou hast glorified. 627
The End.
Parallelisms Between Vondel and Milton.
Since Mr. Edmundson's book is out of print, we have been asked to give a
list of his parallelisms between the "Lucifer" and Milton. This will
give the student the benefit of his comparisons.
LUCIFER, ACT I.
Line 13.
PARADISE LOST.--Book III., line 741.
Line 22.
P.L.--{V., 266-272.
{II., 1012.
Line 35.
P.L.--V., 426.
Line 52.
P.L.--{VIII., 107.
{X., 85.
Line 57.
P.L.--II., 104-105.
Line 61.
P.L.--IV., 227.
Line 63.
P.L.--IV., 233.
Line 64.
P.L.--III., 554.
Line 73.
P.L.--IV., 225.
Line 78.
P.L.--VII., 577.
Line 85-95.
P.L.--{VII., 317.
{VII., 333.
{IV., 644.
Line 107.
P.L.--IV., 340.
Line 115.
P.L.--{V., 7.
{IV., 642.
{IV., 238.
Line 131.
P.L.--{IV., 360-365.
{IX., 457.
Line 134.
P.L.--VII., 505-511.
Line 158.
P.L.--{V., 137.
{IV., 689.
Line 174.
P.L.--{IV., 288-306.
{IV., 496.
Line 180.
P.L.--IX., 450-460.
Line 192.
P.L.--IX., 489.
Line 193-195.
P.L.--IX., 460-470.
Line 199.
P.L.--IV., 304-306.
Line 203.
P.L.--VIII., 40-50.
Line 260.
P.L.--III., 276-290.
Line 268.
P.L.--{III., 313-317.
{III., 323-333.
Line 280.
P.L.--V., 602.
Line 326.
P.L.--V., 429.
Line 330.
P.L.--X., 660-670.
Line 364.
P.L.--III., 382.
LUCIFER ACT II.
Line 22.
P.L.--V., line 787-792.
Line 108.
P.L.--{I., 94-98.
{I., 106-111.
Line 110.
PARADISE REGAINED (P.R.).--III., 201-211.
Line 118.
P.L.--I., 261-263.
Line 176-180.
P.L.--{III., 380-382.
{VIII., 65-67.
{VIII., 71-75.
{VIII., 168-170.
Line 197.
P.L.--V., 810-825.
Line 343.
P.L.--IV, 1010-1012.
Line 367.
P.L.--II., 188-191.
Line 377.
P.L.{--II., 188-191.
{II., 343-346.
{V., 254.
Line 405.
P.L.--{II., 110-112.
{I., 490.
LUCIFER ACT III.
Line 120.
P.L.--X., 1045.
Line 238.
P.L.--V., 617-627.
Line 572.
P.L.--V., 708-710.
LUCIFER ACT IV.
Line 10.
P.L.--V., 708-710.
Line 43.
P.L.--VI., 56-59.
Line 120-155.
P.L.--V., 722-802.
Line 186.
P.L.--III., 383-389.
Line 207.
P.L.--III., 648.
Line 251.
P.L.--IV., 393.
Line 258.
P.L.--II., 188-194.
Line 351.
P.L.--IV., 391-394.
Line 370.
P.R.--IV., 518-520.
Line 410.
P.R.--III., 204.
Line 421.
P.L.--VI., 540.
LUCIFER ACT V.
Line 3.
P.L.--VI., 200-206.
Line 4.
P.L.--VI., 305.
Line 7.
P.L.--VI., 320-323.
Line 8.
P.L.--VI., 250-253.
Line 29.
P.L.--IV., 556-557.
Line 43.
P.L.--VI., 44-53.
Line 54.
P.L.--VI., 61-63.
Line 65.
P.L.--VI., 85-87.
Line 70.
P.L.--IV., 977-980.
Line 85-88.
P.L.--I., 533-540.
Line 94-100.
P.L.--VI., 99-110.
Line 97.
P.L.--XI., 240-241.
Line 101.
P.L.--VI., 754-755.
Line 103.
P.L.--VI., 848-849.
Line 105.
P.L.--I., 286.
Line 111.
P.L.--{I., 84-87.
{I., 588-590.
Line 114.
P.L.--V., 833-845.
Line 115.
P.L.--{I., 68-71.
{VI., 105-107.
Line 124.
P.L.--{VI., 203-219.
{VI., 546.
Line 128.
P.L.--VI., 310-315.
Line 155-161.
P.R.--IV., 18-25.
Line 164.
P.L.--VI., 200-205.
Line 195.
P.L.--IV., 1000.
Line 235.
P.L.--VI., 246-255.
Line 255.
P.L.--VI., 275-278.
Line 269.
P.L.--VI., 324.
Line 275.
P.L.--VI., 390.
Line 290.
P.L.--I., 305.
Line 308.
P.L.--{X., 449-454.
{X., 511-529.
Line 320.
P.L.--X., 510-520.
Line 328.
P.L.--539-545.
Line 345.
P.L.--X., 510-520.
Line 347.
P.R.--IV., 423.
Line 353.
P.L.--VI., 884-886.
Line 410.
P.L.--I., 300-310.
Line 412.
P.L.--538-545.
Line 416.
P.R.--I., 39-42.
Line 417.
P.L.--I., 192-195.
Line 419.
P.L.--II., 1-5.
Line 426.
P.L.--{I., 120-122.
{I., 178-189.
Line 431.
P.L.--{II., 362-375.
{III., 90-96.
Line 433.
P.L.--IX., 130-134.
Line 455.
P.L.--X., 637.
Line 448.
P.L.--XI., 500-513.
Line 457.
P.L.--I., 367-373.
Line 461.
P.L.--I., 381-390.
Line 488.
P.L.--IX., 575-581.
Line 492.
P.L.--IX., 716-732.
Line 494.
P.L.--IX., 685-687.
Line 499.
P.L.--IX., 679-683.
Line 500.
P.L.--IX., -732-743.
Line 509.
P.L.--IX., 1090-1095.
Line 519.
P.L.--{IX., 780-783.
{IX., 1000-1003.
Line 537-545.
P.L.--Last of Book IX.
Line 553.
P.L.--X., 1051-1055.
Line 560.
P.L.--X., 498-499.
Line 564.
P.L.--XII., 386.
Line 604.
P.L.--II., 595-600.
Line 604.
P.L.--I., 56-63.
Line 606.
P.L.--X., 112.
Line 616-627.--Suggestion of Paradise Regained.
Note.--(1) The word _feather_, line 370, Act I., is here used by Vondel
in the old sense of _pen_.
(2) The word _treason_ in the epode of the chorus of angels at the end
of Act III. more literally means _treasonable ambition_.
The Critical Cult.
"I consider your version of the Lucifer the most notable literary
achievement in American letters in the decade from 1890 to
1900."--Richard Watson Gilder.
"It takes a master to translate a master, and the Lucifer of Leonard Van
Noppen is a re-creation of the original work; masterful, comprehensive
and in every sense a finished production. Full of poetic fire and the
magic of the fitting word, it has the imprint of creative genius in
every line and is weighted with the personality of a powerful and vivid
imagination."--Francis Grierson.
"Leonard Charles Van Noppen, the translator of Vondel's Lucifer, is a
poet of extraordinary power and beauty."--Edwin Markham.
Comparing the author with George Sterling, says Mr. Markham, in his
"California, the Wonderful." "In recent poetry only Mr. Leonard Van
Noppen's verse is kindred in lavish word-work and ornate architecture to
'The Wine of Wizardry.' Both men create their poesies with large
movement and breadth of treatment--with amplitude of sky and
prodigiousness of field, with wash of sunset and rainbow, with march of
stars."
"I feel glad that any sparks of mine have served to enkindle the cassia,
nard and frankincense which so prodigally enrich your own altar.
Continue, now, to feed their flames with all those resources which the
translator of Vondel showed me so plainly that he possessed. Take up
your own creative work while in your prime, and in the end you will gain
more nobly won, though none more royally couched, tributes of speech
than those you offer me."--Edmund C. Stedman.
"I congratulate you upon your success in the accomplishment of this very
interesting piece of work and hope that it will meet with that
recognition among scholars which it deserves. I think there is a large
culture for the writer."--Henry Van Dyke.
"I received with much pleasure your Vondel's Lucifer, and as I read it,
I was much delighted. It is a pleasure to read the English version of
this work."--Josef Israels.
"I am much indebted to you for the gift of your very handsome
translation of the 'Lucifer,' and I am not a little struck by the
evidence of literary ability spread over all parts of the volume. I hope
your spirited and scholarly enterprise may meet to the full with the
success it deserves."--Edmund Gosse.
"Worthy the genius of Vondel."--Dr. Jan Ten Brink, Professor of
Literature, University of Leiden.
"A beautiful book. It is almost like discovering a new Homer."--Nathan
Haskell Dole.
"A grand yet exquisite work. It is no flattery to say that the issue of
this book is one of the most notable events of the age, yet is it not
better than praise of one's effort to feel its significance as a centre
of spreading thought and inquiry! To think that you are the first to
give Vondel's Lucifer to the English reading world!"--Mary Mapes Dodge.
"I was reading your translation of Vondel last year, and I was very much
struck with the resemblance to Milton in form and spirit. The conception
of the mental attitude of the fallen angels is one which is certainly
very interesting from a psychological as well as a literary point of
view."--A. Lawrence Lowell.
"The Lucifer has greatly interested me as a revelation of one at least
of the main sources from which Milton gained his ideas. Your preliminary
work to me seems to be admirable, and you have certainly rendered a real
service both to history and literature."--Andrew D. White.
"I wish to thank you for your translation of Vondel's Lucifer. Shall I
confess it? It was long ago since I read that great poet, and your work
afforded me all the pleasure of an original. As for your splendid
chapter, 'Life and Times of Vondel,' and your thorough and searching
Lucifer's Interpretation, they cannot fail to awaken the keenest
interest in the English speaking literary world."--Baron Gevers,
Minister from the Netherlands to Washington.
"Mr. Van Noppen is a man of great literary power, an authority in Dutch
literature and is achieving fame as a translator of the masterpieces of
the Dutch language."--Edwin A. Alderman.
"Your book duly came to hand. I was delighted to see the extraordinary
attention it got in 'Literature,' and I congratulate you on the wide
interest it has awakened."--W.D. Howells.
"Many thanks for your curious and interesting volume, my only chance of
making acquaintance with the Batavian author."--Andrew Lang.
"I want to add my small words to the panegyric and tell you with what
intense interest and pleasure I have followed your astonishing success.
I say astonishing because I wonder how long it is since any one has been
able to stir up such keen and general interest over a classic written
long ago and in a foreign tongue? How long ago has it been since any
classic was so much talked of? When, pray, has a young man made such a
contribution to English letters and so interested thinking and scholarly
people?"--Willa Cather.
"It has become a matter of literary tradition, in Holland and out of it,
that the choral drama of 'Lucifer' is the great masterpiece of Dutch
literature. * * * An era of translation was sure to set in, and it is a
matter of significance that its herald has even now appeared. The
translation into English of Vondel's 'Lucifer' is not only in and for
itself an event of more than ordinary importance in literary history,
but it cannot fail to waken among us a curiosity as to what else of
supreme value may be contained in Dutch literature."--William H.
Carpenter, Professor of Germanic Philology, Columbia University.
"We heartily rejoice that Vondel's drama has been translated into
English by an American for Americans. Were this translation an inferior
one, or were it only mediocre, we should have no reason to be glad, but
in this case it is otherwise. Although no translation can entirely
compensate for the lack of the original it is, however, possible for the
original to be followed very closely. This is well shown by this
rendering, which to a high degree possesses the merit of accuracy,
while, at the same time, the spirit and the character of Vondel's
tragedy are felt, understood and interpreted in a remarkable manner.
Whoever is in a position, by the comparison of the translation with the
original, to form an individual opinion of Van Noppen's superb work,
will probably be convinced, even as I have been, that here an
extraordinarily difficult task has been magnificently done."--G. Kalff,
Professor of Dutch Literature, University of Utrecht.
"This version of Vondel bridges the gap in the Miltonic
Criticism."--Francis B. Gummere.
"Much Esteemed Sir and Friend:
The distinguished octogenarian poet and author, Nicolaas Beets, of
Utrecht, Holland, wrote to Mr. Van Noppen as follows:
'Much Esteemed Sir and Friend:
* * * I have furthermore compared your translation in many a striking
passage with the original, which I always held in my hand. * * *
Whatever was attainable you not only tried to reach most earnestly, but
you have even most excellently succeeded in attaining. You have
absolutely understood and perfectly rendered the meaning, the action,
the spirit and the power of the sublime original. In splendid English
verse we read Vondel's soul. Whoever knows Vondel will admit this, and
whoever does not at present know him will learn to know and appreciate
him from your translation. * * * It is also very plain, from the essays
preceding the translation, that you have made a most thorough and
comprehensive study of Vondel and of his poetry in connection with the
entire field of the literature and history of his time. Though having
myself read, and even written, in prose as well as poetry, so much
concerning Vondel, I was often so impressed by criticisms and
observations in your essays that I felt impelled to revise and complete
my own conceptions."
The American Press.
"Mr. Van Noppen has produced a text which, so far as mere suppleness and
naturalness go, might be taken for an original production, and his
editorial labors have been considerable."--New York Tribune.
"There is reason enough for the publication in English of such a
classic as the Lucifer, and it is fortunate that the work could be so
artistically done."--Review of Reviews.
"To compare the two poems--Milton's Paradise Lost and Vondel's
Lucifer--is as if one should contrast a great chorale by Bach or
Mendelssohn with a magnificent hymn-tune by Sir Arthur Sullivan or
William Henry Monk. The epic and the drama are both triumphs of skill.
Why make comparisons? Rather let the world rejoice in two such
possessions."--Philadelphia Record.
"It is particularly fortunate that the first English rendering of the
great poem is so ably and conscientiously done. * * * Finally, the poem
is illustrated by fifteen drawings in black and white by the famous
Dutch artist, John Aarts, which are printed with the text."--The
Bookseller, Newsdealer and Stationer.
"If only as a literary, or as a human document, shedding light upon the
methods of the greatest of English epic poets, Mr. Van Noppen's work
would be of infinite value to all students. But the book which he has
translated possesses, besides these adventitious claims to respect, a
supreme intrinsic value. It is a drama that is everywhere great, and in
passages sublime. * * * That the present translation is a good one he
who reads can discern. It is strong, nervous, and rhythmical. It is,
above all, good English, not a Teutonized hybrid."--New York Herald.
Mr. Van Noppen's translation is spirited and dignified, and there is a
distinct lyric charm, which he has managed to preserve--a rare feat with
a translator."--Charleston News and Courier.
"For the reader who desires merely the artistic comment of the pictures
that thoroughly illustrate this famous old poem we might add that Mr.
Aarts has caught the spirit--the pictorial beauty--of Lucifer as perhaps
no other artist of the day could have done. The man himself is a poet,
and he has translated into these drawings the majestic tragedy of
Lucifer even as Mr. Van Noppen has translated it into stately English
verse."--Brooklyn Citizen.
"Literary societies, university extension circles, and reading clubs are
all here furnished with a fresh winter theme whose stages are already
plotted out for the worker."--Philadelphia Inquirer.
"Vondel's Lucifer is one of the most important contributions ever made
to the catholic literature of the English-speaking world. * * * As a
specimen of book-making the volume is a model."--St. Louis Church
Progress.
"We may consider Mr. Van Noppen's translation as a key that has unlocked
a literary treasure and put within our reach a classic of Teutonic
literature."--Detroit Free Press.
"The English-speaking literary world is under great obligations to the
translator and publisher of this uniquely printed, illustrated, and
bound volume."--Richmond Dispatch.
"The present rendering of Lucifer is by Leonard C. Van Noppen, who has
made a translation which will link his name with that of the master as
Edward Fitzgerald has bound his up with that of Omar Khayyam."--Buffalo
News.
"A most meritorious translation of the Dutch poet's sublime tragedy,
with a great deal of critical and biographical matter in the
introductory sections."--Philadelphia Press.
"This careful translation of the great masterpiece of Dutch literature
is one of the important books of the year."--Chicago Tribune.
"As Lucifer is the greatest work of the Dutch poet's, the fine
translation and its elegant setting in the beautiful book is most
gratifying."--Chicago Inter-Ocean.
"The translation is as literal as it can be made, and the sonorous
tongue of its original author is heard through it all"--Chicago
Times-Herald.
"The translation is an earnest and faithful rendering of the poet's
ideas, and the verse is technically excellent; in fact, the translation
may bid for the exalted place of the original in many
libraries."--Times-Union, Albany.
"The stately sweep of the original verse has not been lost in the
transference from one tongue to another. Mr. Van Noppen has, in addition
to his translation of the poem, furnished a sympathetic and interesting
memoir of the Life and Times of Vondel, and an elaborate, critical and
scholarly Interpretation of the Lucifer."--Brooklyn Times.
"This delightfully printed book is a real work of art, and is a worthy
contribution to the history of literature."--Boston Globe.
"Leonard Charles Van Noppen, the translator, has given to English
literature another great classic."--Dramatic Magazine, Chicago.
"It is a very interesting event that we have Vondel's Lucifer in a
scholarly, an accurate, and an admirable rendering into
English."--Wilmington (N.C.) Messenger.
"If we were asked to give our opinion of this version we should express
it in one word--'masterly.' The powers of expression and the richness of
Vondel's thought, together with the rhythmical beauty of the poem, have
been preserved in full. It is a masterpiece, and should have a place in
every library."--De Grondwet (Dutch paper), Holland, Mich.
"In the essay on Vondel's Life and Times we have a singularly able and
deeply interesting account of the conditions under which Vondel
developed. * * * For the poem itself, like many more of the writings of
Vondel, it has been recognized as a classic. Nobody can read it and not
feel the sublimity of the inspiration that produced it."--San Francisco
Chronicle.
"The whole thing is new and interesting--introduction, biography and
poem. It opens up Dutch literature, the society of the Eglantine, a
social field of poets and writers."--Baltimore Sun.
"Translator, artist and publishers are to be highly commended for the
handsome and satisfactory manner in which they have combined to present
this celebrated Dutch classic to American readers."--New Orleans
Times-Democrat.
"The translator is Leonard Charles Van Noppen, and he is a poet himself
in English. This intellectual and temperamental tendency enabled him to
make a literal rendering that is not only highly accurate, but that also
most admirably conserves the spirit of the original. The book is
beautifully illustrated by the Dutch artist, John Aarts. From Mr. Van
Noppen's interesting introductory essay on Vondel--a clear,
comprehensive, and convincing exposition, as admirable in style as it is
valuable in matter--we learn many interesting things concerning this old
poet, this unknown Titan, whom the ablest students of literature place
on the same plane with Milton, Dante, and Æschylus."--The Saturday
Evening Post, Philadelphia.
"In almost every, if not in every individual particular, the book is a
model of what such a book should be. Intelligent and scholarly editing,
thoughtful consideration for all the several needs of students as well
as readers, liberal and judicious provision in the matter of
accessories, a cultivated and refined taste in decoration, and a true
feeling for typographical elegance in each respect of paper, type,
margins, edgings, illustrations and binding unite to give this volume a
character of genuine excellence and an aspect of chaste elegance such as
are not often seen in a single example. The total is a result of such
importance and value that we shall describe it item by item."--The
Literary World, Boston.
"Mr. Van Noppen's introductory study of the Life and Times of Vondel is
masterly in knowledge of the whole literary atmosphere of the day, with
its grand galaxy of writers. * * * Therefore this book will serve
another purpose besides that of introducing Anglo-Saxon readers to the
beauties of Vondel's masterpiece: it will unfold to them as well the
history of Holland's great literary period in all its wealth and beauty.
In this translation of the drama itself, which is strictly faithful to
the original in spirit, he has succeeded in reproducing to a
considerable extent the virility, the majesty, of the original."--The
Critic,
From Signed Reviews.
"Mr. Van Noppen has laid the student of Milton as well as the student of
Dutch literature under weighty obligations by a translation of the drama
of Lucifer which is not only true to the sense of its original, but
also not unworthy of its fame."--Mayo W. Hazeltine, in New York Sun.
"Vondel's Lucifer is just as readable to-day as it was two hundred and
fifty years ago, and in this translation the energetic simplicity of it
abides."--George W. Smalley, in New York Herald.
"We prefer to accept Mr. Van Noppen's translation as he offers it for
the worth of the poem itself, and that is sufficient for many a
century."--George Henry Payne, in The Criterion.
"Mr. Van Noppen's translation of the Lucifer in this book is one for
which he claims literalness to a close extent; but its fluency is not
the less to be noted. Some of the best and most brilliant passages
scarcely seem like a translation, so naturally and choicely do the words
proceed."--Joel Benton, in The New York Times' "Review of Books."
"I spent one whole evening comparing Mr. Van Noppen's translation with
the original. As far as exactness goes, as far as intimate verbal
interpretation of Vondel's verse is concerned, it equals Andrew Lang's
wonderful prose translation of the Iliad. By far the most difficult part
of this translation must have been that of the lyrics and choral
passages (after the Greek mode) with which the drama abounds. Mr. Van
Noppen has preserved (at what pains) not only the metre and the rhythm,
but also the rhymes, often involute and curiously doubled."--Vance
Thompson, in Musical Courier.
"The work evinces not only a mastery of seventeenth century Dutch, but
an insight into metrical effects and facility in reproducing them in
English. This version could not have come from one who had not drilled
himself for years in the theory and practice of English verse. We
bespeak for the handsome volume before us a wide circulation. That such
a translation has been sorely needed every student of comparative
literature knows. That this need has been adequately met every impartial
student of Mr. Van Noppen's version will, we believe, readily
admit."--Prof. C. Alphonso Smith, Ph.D., in Modern Language Notes,
Baltimore, Md., Dec, 1898.
"The intrinsic value of the work makes the publication of Mr. Van
Noppen's translation an event of peculiar literary interest."--John D.
Barry, in Boston Literary World.
The London Press.
"The dramatic masterpiece of the great Dutch poet of the seventeenth
century has found a skilled and vigorous translator in Mr. Leonard
Charles Van Noppen, and the sustained volume is further enriched by a
careful memoir of the author of Lucifer and by an elaborate critical
Interpretation of the poem. Justice is thus at last rendered to a poet
of unquestionable genius and inspiration, of whom everything like a fair
estimate has hitherto been hardly possible to an English reader. * * *
There is no appeal to the groundlings in the style and quality of the
verse, which in Mr. Van Noppen's spirited translation has a march of
sustained, or, at least, of rarely failing dignity throughout, and in
its intercalated choric passages is by no means wanting in lyrical
charm. * * * But after half a dozen, a dozen, a score, of similar
parallelisms the odds against chance and in favor of design become so
overwhelming that the least mathematically minded of men will reject
the former hypothesis. The 'long arm of coincidence' is not so long as
all that. And, most assuredly, it is not long enough to cover the fact
that Milton's Samson Agonistes followed in due course on Vondel's
Samson, and that it abounds in evidences that in the matter of dramatic
construction, at any rate, to leave the poetry out of the question, he
was content to take his Dutch contemporary as his closely followed
model."--London Literature.
"It is interesting that the first English translation of Vondel's famous
play should be made in America and put forth in the old Dutch city of
New York. The volume is a handsome one, elaborately gotten up."--London
Daily Chronicle.
"Lucifer is a large, majestic drama, and adorned with several beautiful
choric odes."--W.L. Courtney, in London Daily Telegraph.
* * * Milton undoubtedly behaved in a light-fingered fashion at the
expense of Vondel, not once or twice, but often. * * * After a long
lapse of time this matter is reopened by Mr. Leonard Charles Van Noppen,
whose volume in praise and explanation of Vondel is a book of quite
uncommon merit and charm, and one absolutely indispensable to students
of Milton. * * * Of Mr. Van Noppen's success as a translator there can
be only one opinion. We have read his version with surprise and delight.
Vondel's Lucifer, in nearly all respects, will prove a veritable
treasure for the genuine book-lover."--The London Literary World.
Board of the Queen Wilhelmina Lectureship, Columbia University
GENTLEMEN:
We, members of the "Board of the Queen Wilhelmina Lectureship, Columbia
University," Professor Doctor G. Kalff, of the University of Leiden;
Member Royal Academy of Sciences of Amsterdam; Leiden. President; J.
Heldring, of Heldring & Pierson, Bankers, the Hague; J.W. IJzerman,
President of the Royal Netherland Geographical Society at Amsterdam, the
Hague; Wouter Nijhoff, President of the Dutch Publishers' Association,
the Hague; Doctor H.J. Kiewiet de Jonge, President of the General Dutch
Alliance, Dordrecht, Hon. Secretary, herewith plead for your
co-operation with our endeavors to spread in America a knowledge of our
civilization and institutions. Notwithstanding the tremendous influence
of Holland upon England and the American Colonies--an influence as yet
hardly guessed--the study of the Dutch and their history in the colleges
and universities of America is still universally neglected. So little in
fact is known of this subject and of Holland's part in civilization that
there is even among scholars but little appreciation of the importance
of this subject. Only at Columbia University is there any evidence of
interest. Here our literary representative, Leonard C. Van Noppen, whom
we have selected as the pioneer to blaze the way, has inaugurated
several courses in Dutch Literature and given besides lectures on the
various periods of its development. Since Columbia has been the first to
co-operate with us, will not your institution be the second? If so,
will you kindly address Prof. Leonard C. van Noppen, Queen Wilhelmina
Lecturer, Columbia University, N.Y.? Mr. Van Noppen will be glad at any
time to introduce you to this subject and to lecture on such phases of
it as you may deem the most interesting.
We invite your students to our universities. Here is a field which will
enrich scholarship with many discoveries. The selection of the Hague as
the Capital of Peace has given Holland a new international importance.
Your universities have established chairs in Icelandic, Chinese and
Russian, subjects whose importance and value are incalculably less than
that of Dutch. Is it not time that a beginning be made in this
direction? Not even the study of the Spanish, the Italian and the French
is so fertile of results as that of the civilization of the Netherlands,
which, as the mother of the Teutonic Renaissance, influenced the
civilization of the English-speaking world so largely. Prof. Butler
will, upon application, be glad to give Mr. van Noppen leave of absence
to lecture at your university. Mr. Van Noppen has given courses of
lectures on this subject at the Lowell Institute, Brooklyn Institute,
Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Cincinnati and
many other colleges and universities.
We add the following notice of his lecture at Davidson College, N.C.:
"Davidson, April 20.--It is altogether too seldom that our Southern
colleges, certainly it is true of Davidson, are privileged to have with
them a lecturer of the type seen in Professor Leonard Charles van Noppen
of the Queen Wilhelmina Chair of Dutch Literature in Columbia
University, who spoke last evening in Shearer Hall and who speaks again
this evening and to-night.
"Doctor van Noppen was introduced by Professor Thomas W. Lingle, who in
a brief speech told of the lecturers right by virtue of birth and
training to speak on the topic selected and for a few minutes in an
instructive way pointed out what Holland had contributed to Western
civilization and particularly to American life and history, an
introduction so full of facts marked with such accurate historical
perspective that the Columbia lecturer in making acknowledgment said he
felt inclined to take his seat and let Doctor Lingle continue, so
familiar did he seem with the subject he himself was to present.
"To say that Doctor van Noppen's lecture was popular, in the ordinary
sense of the word, would do it great injustice. It was too comprehensive
in its reach, and strong in its grasp, too scholarly, too suggestive of
research and prolonged investigation and study, too elaborate in phrase
and too masterful in its discriminating use of choice English and ornate
diction for any one to call it popular. Its purpose and its value is not
of this order. Rather, after listening to such a paper, the scholar is
glad that it is doubtless to appear in permanent or book form, where he
can study it at leisure. To the college student it serves as a stimulus,
an inspiration, an ideal to show him that in his daily routine of class
room work he is only laying a foundation on which to build and with
which he may begin the higher intellectual life, may start out for
himself to read, to investigate and in time reduce to consistent and
articulated form the results of his own weeks and months not to say
years of patient toil in the great libraries.
"In a very strict sense Doctor van Noppen's first lecture was scholarly
and showed clearly that it breathes a university atmosphere and is
intended primarily and ultimately for the lecture hall of the Johns
Hopkins University, where he is soon to deliver the series. He is just
now returning from a lecture tour in the West.
"Beginning with a clever characterization of the people of Holland as a
practical one, first reclaiming from the sea a land to live on, and then
anchoring it to the continent, in rapid review he showed what a
wonderful contribution this little country, less than Maryland, and
small in everything but in history, has made to modern Christian
civilization. Washed out of the soil of Germany on toward the sea--and
no wonder that Germany looks with envious eyes upon it--it is the
richest country imaginable. It has a per capita wealth of $12,000 as
against America's $4,000. In proportion to population it has done more
for civilization than any other nation, not even Greece excepted. Then
followed in rapid review the facts of history in substantiation of the
claim.
"Conspicuous in the claims and seemingly substantiated was in the
influence of Holland in spreading abroad, notably in America, the
doctrines of the equality of all men, separation of Church and State,
religious freedom, freedom of the press, local self-government.
"Fine was the description of Philip of Spain, of William the Silent.
Interesting was the portrayal of the work of the Chamber of Eglantine of
Amsterdam, of the men of letters of Leiden and the intellectual forces
leading up to and resulting in the great University in Leiden.
"Most striking of all was his brilliant description of the life and work
of the great Dutch poet Vondel and the story of how Milton, the greatest
of English Epic poets, has been content to follow, imitate and copy from
Vondel in his Lucifer where Vondel has shown himself the great
dramatist."
The "Baltimore Sun" writes of his lecture at Johns Hopkins:
"Very frequently since the day when Geoffrey Chaucer fashioned his
immortal 'Canterbury Tales' upon Bocaccio's 'Decameron,' English poets
have been subject to the impeachment of having borrowed (usually without
proper acknowledgment) from foreign sources--borrowed material, plot,
episodes, characters and, sometimes, language, embodied in whole phrases
and sentences. The Elizabethan Age, pre-eminent though it was in
creative literary excellence, has not escaped the challenge of its
originality. French and Italian influences and writers exercised a
strongly formative power upon Drayton, Sidney, Spenser and others of the
elect, and even the great Bard of Stratford did not scruple at
transmuting the clay of less gifted molders into the gold of his superb
coinage.
"But it has not been generally recognized that Milton was such an
appropriator. Accordingly, Dr. L.C. van Noppen's lecture showing that
the great Puritan poet was indebted to the 'Lucifer' of Vondel, the
Dutch author, for the theme, the treatment, the description and even
some of the finest passages in 'Paradise Lost,' is a surprise. Yet Dr.
Van Noppen makes out a very strong case. The appearance of 'Lucifer' a
short time before Milton's Continental tour, which was cut short by the
breaking out of the great civil war in England; the strong likelihood
that Milton had heard of Vondel and his work through Roger Williams,
whose sojourn in Europe had made him acquainted with 'Lucifer,' and who
had instructed Milton in modern languages; Milton's association in Paris
with Hugo Grotius, one of the most eminent scholars of his time, a
countryman and an enthusiastic admirer of Vondel--all combine into a
strong chain of circumstantial evidence, which, reinforced by the
undeniable similarity and the many parallel passages in the two great
works, make a conclusion which is almost imperative.
"But the conceding of Milton's debt to Vondel does not cancel our debt
to Milton, whose sublime epic has given pleasure and comfort to scores
of readers to whom Vondel's drama has been a sealed volume. Neither does
it release our obligation to 'render unto Caesar the things that are
Cæsar's.'"
Furthermore, we hope that you will consider the establishment of a chair
in Dutch Literature or History and that you, in anticipation of this
foundation, will from time to time send us such students as desire to
make this subject their specialty. Hoping that you, after a
consideration of this matter, will co-operate with us, I am
Respectfully yours for the Board of
the Queen Wilhelmina Lectureship,
H.J. Kiewiet de Jonge,
Hon. Secretary.
DORDRECHT (Holland), November, 1915.
End of Project Gutenberg's Vondel's Lucifer, by Joost van den Vondel